\n<\/p>\n
Erika Lincoln had just removed her hunting boots when her husband spotted the bull. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Chris\u2019 truck, having just tugged on her cowboy boots and writing off yet another archery elk season as a bust. It was the last day to archery hunt in Montana and it looked like she would go another year without notching her tag. Erika had been archery hunting for five years and had yet to harvest a single animal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The pair were driving down a dirt road on Oct. 15, away from their campsite on public land in west-central Montana, when Chris stopped to glass. It was a last-ditch effort after multiple unsuccessful weekends in the same spot, this latest one a four-day trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband has the eyes for the critters. He jokingly said \u2018Hey, wanna finally shoot a bull?\u2019 And I said \u2018Ha ha, very funny,\u2019\u201d Erika tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cBut he said \u2018No seriously, get out of the truck, there\u2019s a bull right there.\u2019 I didn\u2019t even see the head, just the body.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The bull was a thousand yards away, so Erika and Chris started sneaking in its direction\u2014Erika now in her square-toed cowboy boots. The elk had been bedded in a bowl up a small rise from the road but as the pair moved closer, the bull got up to move out of the sun and bedded in a shaded spot out of Erika\u2019s line of sight. But they kept creeping in and eventually they had eyes on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe bull had started to doze off,\u201d Erika says, laughing. \u201cSo he looked very surprised. At 40 yards I drew back, and he looked up like \u2018Oh, crap, a human,\u2019 and I drove him with a nice lung shot. He went down pretty quick, he made it maybe 100 yards.\u201d<\/p>\n Erika didn\u2019t actually see the size of the rack\u2014with its 14 points, busted tips, and broken tine\u2014until she came around a corner. That\u2019s when she realized it was a bull she had hunted last year. She had come within 6 yards of the bull but didn\u2019t have a good angle and had to pass on him.<\/p>\n \u201cI popped past the trees and saw that huge head,\u201d she says. \u201cWith my heart condition, if I get excited or nervous, I flip into AFIB. So I have to hold my breath for a couple seconds to right my heart rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n By AFIB, Erika means atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heartbeat. For her, the most complicated part of hunting is doing so while battling chronic illness. At 37, she\u2019s dealt with chronic illness for 22 years. She has lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, hypophosphatasia, glaucoma, a rare heart condition, and other roadblocks that complicate her ability to hunt comfortably and safely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can make it 50 to 100 yards before I start to see spots, so I have to stop and catch my breath and let my heart right itself,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was dark by the time we processed the elk and put everything in packs to walk out, and the walk out was nothing but tall grass and shrubs. I have glaucoma, so I really can\u2019t see in the dark. So walking out in the dark was super fun, with over 100 pounds on our backs.\u201d<\/p>\n Erika receives chemotherapy drugs to treat her lupus, a side effect of which was Bell\u2019s Palsy, causing half her face to droop. The medication also lowered her immune system, so she ended up with shingles, which also impacted her vision. These complications make already-difficult parts of Western bowhunting\u2014stalking, drawing, aiming steadily, focusing in on a pin, managing adrenaline, and packing a big game animal out\u2014all the harder.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to buy a different type of scope with a firedot, because my eyes can\u2019t focus on the center of the crosshairs anymore,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut \u2026 I\u2019m a one-and-done kind of person who won\u2019t shoot unless I\u2019m sure. So I\u2019ve had to change some things to accommodate my health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n